![]() ![]() In these poststructuralist times we recognise many metaforms. And Jean Tinguely described his machine-like sculptures as “metamechanical.” (But a metaphysician is not a doctor's doctor.) A metalanguage is a language that supplies terms for analysing a language a metametalanguage does the same for a metalanguage. A metatheorem is a theorem about theorems. A metacriterion is a criterion that defines criteria. Then, from about 1940, it became commonplace to prefix meta- to designate concern with basic principles. Examples include metaethics (the study of the foundations of ethics, especially the nature of ethical statements) and metahistory (an inquiry into the principles that govern historical events). This use first appeared in the early 17th century (John Donne, for example, writes about metatheology) but did not become really popular until the middle of the 19th century. However, because The Metaphysics dealt with what Aristotle called “primary philosophy,” or ontology, metaphysics came to be misunderstood as “the science of that which transcends the physical.”Īs a result, the prefix meta- was then used to designate any higher science (actual or hypothetical) that dealt with more fundamental problems than the original science itself. Then he published a set of papers that he called The Metaphysics (τὰ μετὰ τὰ φυςικά), simply because it came after The Physics. ![]() Andronicus called one set of papers The Physics (τὰ φυςικά), dealing as they did with natural science. Some 250 years after his death, Aristotle's manuscripts came into the hands of Andronicus of Rhodes, who edited them. And chemists use meta- to differentiate certain metameric chemical compounds (such as metacresol, paracresol, orthocresol).Īnd so to Aristotle. In geology meta- is used to distinguish various types of metamorphic processes. In scientific English words its uses include “consequent upon” (as in the obsolete terms meta-arthritic, metapneumonic), “behind” or “beyond” in an anatomical sense (metabranchial, metacarpal, metaphysis), “coming later” (metaphase, which comes after prophase), or “changing” (metachromasia, a property of materials that stain a different colour from the stain used). Examples of the last include metabolism, metamorphosis, and metaplasia. It was also used as a prefix to express such notions as sharing, being in the midst of, succession, pursuit, reversal, and (most commonly) change. With the accusative it could mean coming into or among, in pursuit of, or coming after in place or time with the genitive it could mean in the midst of, between, or in common with and with the dative it could mean in the company of or over and above. The Greek preposition μετά (meta) had several meanings, depending on whether it governed the accusative, genitive, or dative case. Mr John Gleave, a neurosurgeon, has written to ask me the origin of the meta- in meta-analysis. ![]()
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